Child Abuse in India

This is hot off the press. In a ground breaking effort, Save the Children and Ministry of Women and Child Developement in India have for the first time conducted a study of child abuse across 13 Indian States covering 12,500 children and 4800 young adults. The findings of the report are shocking.

Some of the key findings are (Excerpts from Reuters Alertnet):

1. Boys, as compared to girls, are equally at risk of abuse.
   
2. Persons in trust and authority are major abusers.
   
3. 5-12 year old children are in the high risk category: across the forms of abuse, the percentage of abuse among them is the highest.
   
4. 70% of the children have not reported abuse to anyone.
   
5. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi almost consistently report high rates of abuse in all forms as compared to other States.
   
6. 2 out of every 3 children have been physically abused.
   Two out of every three school going children are victims of corporal punishment. Half of these incidents are in government run schools.
   
7. More than half of the child respondents reported facing one or more forms of sexual abuse.
   
8. Every second child reported facing emotional abuse. In more than 80% of the cases parents were the abusers.

At the inauguration of the Study, Renuka Choudhary, Minister of State, Ministry of Women and Child Development, said "This is a landmark study that paves the way for new initiatives for protection of children in India." The Ministry on its part has taken measures such as enabling legislation to establish the National and State Commissions for Protection of Rights of the Child, the Integrated Child Protection Scheme and the draft Offences against Children Bill.

To read the complete article click here.

Supreme Court 's Decision - No Roadside Cooking

In my previous blog I had talked about the impact of the same. My views are shared to a certain extent....

Hot Debate on NDTV:


http://www.ndtv.com/debate/showdebate.asp?show=1&story_id=246&template=&category=National

Reality Bites Hard - II - Uttar Pradesh...... Is it really Uttam Pradesh?

In a previous blog I had mentioned that what an irony it actually is that Uttar Pradesh claims to be Uttam Pradesh.

They even convinced Amitabh Bachhan to endorse the fact.... the irony being that he claims that UP is Uttam since ...'jurm yahan kam hai'. The UP government has published a 112 page document that claims why Uttar Pradesh as a Uttam Pradesh.The following links are not 112 page long and therefore for many it will not hold the same weightage... but can they be denied?????

a) UP against it

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/SUNDAY_SPECIALS/Special_Report/Up_against_it/articleshow/1872296.cms

b) Hopes runs dry in fields

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/SUNDAY_SPECIALS/Special_Report/Hope_runs_dry_in_fields/articleshow/1872279.cms

After reading these can you deny it????

Author I Admire - II – Jhumpa Lahiri

Another author whose books I love to read is Jhumpa Lahiri. Having been born and brought up in a convent school I was pretty familiar with the names of the writers in the western world. Love for books and variety had compelled me to explore the works of Indian authors in the English medium. Jhumpa Lahiri’s book ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’ was one of the first book I read in this category. The books she wrote gave me the motivation to read books by other Indian authors too.

Interpreter of Maladies is a compilation of several short stories revolving around average Indians and their lives which are complicated both by internal and external factors. She has the art of putting a simple thing of everyday life in a manner which makes reading it a joy. With her writing style she invites you to read further about topics that we face in our everyday lives. Instead of being boring and mundane she makes small things in her writings interesting enough for an enjoyable read. She has the art of presenting a very common, down-to-earth situation in a manner which is uniquely hers.

Her book ‘The Namesake’ has been made into a motion picture by Mira Nair. The book leaves a definite mark on the reader’s mind about the lives of Indians struggling to make a living in the USA. It strips away all flowery and idealistic notions about the kind of lives that an average Indian has in the land of dreams. And she does it in her own in-imitable style. Having read the rave reviews that the motion picture has received from the public and the industry I am very enthusiastic about watching the movie myself and indulge in another favorite pass time that I have – of comparing the book and the movie and judging whether the movie adaptation did justice to the book…..